STEP 1: LOOK FOR THE RIGHT MINDSET

Stanlib CFO Avashnee Ramdial said with the right technology and skill sets, finance teams can help an organisation navigate the tough operating environment it finds itself in currently. “We have to move away from past reporting and really look at analysis for the future. Organisations are looking for business partners that can tell them what is going to happen, not historians.”

For Nando’s South Africa CFO Simon Adams, the key to building a good finance team is twofold. “On one hand, the core fundamentals of finance remain, and although we want to edge towards the sexy stuff, like technology, high-performance mindset and forward-looking ambition, you still have to hire for the technical capability,” he said, adding that he places a lot of reliance on professional bodies like SAICA and ACCA to hire for those.

However, Simon believes that partnering with the HR function when bringing in new talent is ultimately the way to getting the right skills, explaining that a psychometric test and interview can only tell you so much about a candidate, and that it’s fairly easy to get around those.

Stanlib, on the other hand, has embraced character assessment tests. “Everyone that gets hired has to do a specific assessment that tests for innovation and analytical ability around scenarios and business partnering,” Avashnee explained.

TWK Agri CFO Eddie Fivaz added that the culture of a company is the starting point of building a team ready for the next decade. “Trust should be the cornerstone of the company. Employees should feel supported by their

CFO South Africa executive community director Georgina Guedes asked the CFOs attending the Summit about unusual skills they will be looking for, and they said:

1. Business partnering

2. A solution mindset

3. Storytelling

4. Bigger picture thinking

5. Innovation leaders, and their values must be aligned with the company’s values.”

In addition to hiring the right skills for the new job, CFOs have to ensure that their teams are enabled with the right tech. And with the massive move towards automation, this is more possible than ever.

“Historically, finance teams would sit until the early hours of the morning doing reports. Now, the Nando’s South Africa team goes home at 5pm and the bot does all of that for us. We just come in the next morning to clean up the data and pick up the areas the AI hasn’t learnt yet,” Simon explained.

Stanlib has also reaped the benefits of automation with their recent implementation of Oracle. “We’ve reduced the budgeting process from two and a half months to two weeks,” she boasted. They also implemented a reporting and forecasting framework to help them plan their scenarios more effectively.

Simon further explained that, at Nando’s, they have stopped bringing in junior skilled individuals, like clerks, and are instead filling empty vacancies with more analytical, insight-driven, business partnering and commercial skills.

Guided by the theme, High-Performance Team Revolution, the summit used various case studies from attendees to explore the post Covid-19 effect on workplace models.

Unilever VP of finance for Africa, Mikateko Tshetshe, whose organisation opted for a hybrid model, unpacked how to go about shaping a workplace for the future.

“Our staff officially needs to be at the office at least twice a week. Post Covid-19 we realised that people want flexibility, and as such we had to have structures in place to make this possible.”

Mikateko advised finance executives to have a definite structure in place for their chosen work model. “In our case the business has to provide some structure as to how that will work. We are clustered according to different business groups and functions. We are at a point where we are disciplined and diligent enough to work remotely.”

What has become apparent, said Mikateko, is that employees are now more conscious of how they use their time at the office. “Being in the office requires one to be more organised and structured. There is a proactiveness in the thinking of how to maximise the time with the team in the office.”

Hatch Africa CFO Craig Sumption said his organisation opted to have everyone back in the office full-time. He did, however, highlight that this was not an easy decision and there was a bit of trial and error prior to making a final call. “To start with, we tried to implement a hybrid process, and in the first month we could see it didn’t work [for our organisation]. A global decision was made for everyone in every function to be back at the office full-time.”

He acknowledged that there was a bit of resistance, as many were not happy, but some adjustments needed to be made to ease the transition. “After 18 months back at the office, I can safely say that the teams have all adjusted and we are forging forward seamlessly.”

Craig explained that even though theirs was not a popular decision at the time, there are benefits to being in person, such as the ability to have conversations, which are able to iron out any minor issues, without having to schedule a call or online meetings. “Being remote did to a certain extent create a culture where people were working in silos. The human element of engaging with the team was somewhat removed.”

Exploring the topic at hand further, one CFO said the remote and hybrid working models did not work in their organisation. The team work ethic of his team suffered greatly, he said, explaining that everyone started working in silos and where previously they would engage each other on a challenge, they opted to solve it themselves. “This also meant knowledge-sharing was not happening. Instead of calling or scheduling meetings, team members would just figure the issue out by themselves. It is for this reason we opted to return to the office.”

Another, whose company has decided to be completely remote, said it is possible to be efficient, productive and sustain team culture with clear and direct communication.

Another attendee, whose company is still trying to figure out which model is best for them, said even though there was a temptation to bring everyone back to the office, it was the resistance from the staff that swayed the decision.

“To be honest, the staff representative gave practical and valid reasons as to why we should adopt a more hybrid model. As much as it is beneficial to the workers, it is having an effect on production. What we have seen is that senior and middle management seem to be more diligent whereas junior staff are battling on that front.” It is all a work in progress, he said, but hopes to find a solution sooner rather than later.

“There is no one-size-fits-all. What is important is that there is clear and definitive messaging around the model you choose,” Mikateko assured everyone.

Eddie said the key to a successful team is its leader. “But it’s not about the title. It’s about the three i’s that we as leaders are responsible for: impact, influence and inspiration.”

EY partner Sean Berrington shared how his recent move from CFO of Standard Bank’s group engineering division to a passion-led technology leader helped him evolve into a leader of the future.

Sean, who says he has always had a passion for technology developments, said he saw the value of being a technology leader with a finance background appealing. “Over the years at Standard Bank I had developed a passion for tech, and I decided that I would follow my heart. My past experience as a CFO brings different values and conversations to my current role.”

Addressing the audience of finance executives, Sean said technology, and the ability to evaluate its customer value proposition, is now an integral part of any executive role. “As technology shifts, changes and scales, we need to assess what we need to adopt and scale in our businesses.”

SAP Africa CFO Sandi de Souza, who’s journey panned out differently, said she believes a balance between theoretical teachings and practical learning in the workplace is what hones leaders. “Embarking on my MBA after a few years in corporate opened my eyes to leadership styles. The theory and content learnt during the modules was great, but the biggest takeaway [for me] was a change in personal development and thought process. The balance between the two allows one to approach issues differently.”

Sandi encouraged attendees to not shy away from learning and to be adaptive.l